Day 119 - Rangely (August 5)

Stripe, New Guy, and I made it into Rangely early this afternoon after a fairly short 9 mile hike. We all needed to resupply here. Stripe is staying with a friend of his mom, and New Guy is heading back to the first shelter from the road. That shelter is only about a mile from the road so I decided to stay in town tonight. The next 35 miles to Straton will be very difficult miles. The mountains are high with peaks above the tree line, and the trail is nothing but muck and water. Rain is forecasted every day for at least the next 5 days.

Hitching with two other people was not a problem. We have all discussed hitching techniques. Some people believe its easier to hitch when you are with someone because the driver sees you are not a friendless loner. Others believe its easier to hitch alone because the driver will not feel out numbered. Stripe likes to give people a friendly wave as they pass to let them know we are friendly and its ok to stop. I think trying to get as clean as possible might help a lot, but I mostly get rides from guys in pickups who probably don't care about a little dirt.

I still have to find a place to stay. There is a hostile fairly close to town for $20. There is also Riff Raff's friendly about 4 miles away. They will come and pick you up if you call. I hear that Riff Raff's place is a good place to go if you like to stay up late. A friendly is usually someones house. They can not charge you to stay there, but a donation is accepted. I think a hostile has state established rules cooking and beds and stuff like that. Friendlies are usually much cheaper and often accept work for stay.

Trail conditions are so bad that I really don't want to get back on the trail tomorrow. I've just been thinking about doing the miles. I calculated that I may be able to finish with 12 more days on the trail. There are about 220 miles left. Those miles can be done in 12 days if all goes right. It might take longer. Those miles are all underwater, and we will be walking in ankle deep muck the entire way. It's supposed to rain every single day so we will be wet all day too. There are low clouds so there will be no views either.

I think the one reason that I'm staying on the trail now is that when ever it rains or the weather is bad, it will feel so good knowing that I do not have to walk hundreds of miles in it. There was a really interesting chapter in Moby Dick about how you can not know pleasure until you know discomfort. I agree. While the next 12 days will be mostly unpleasant, I think they will make all of the days I'm sitting at home while its raining outside that much more pleasant.